Secret' Admirer
by RayvnAshes2
Summary: Percy, wanting to give Nico a Christmas not plagued by thoughts of his neglecting father and dead family, starts leaving him gifts, which has the added bonus of possibly giving him the opportunity to confess his feelings. Of course, then Nico has to realize what he's trying to do... T rating for now, maybe that will change. This is SLASH-don't like don't read.
1. The First Gift

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson.**

**Note: This is Slash, don't like it, don't read it. Flames will be ignored.**

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Percy snuck into the Hades Cabin as quietly as possible. His heart was beating out of his chest, just waiting for Nico to catch him in the act. Luckily Nico, who was currently sleeping on his large black bed, had huge sound-isolating headphones covering his ears. Percy hurried to the bedside table beside his 'cousin', and carefully set down the gift. Then, he left as quickly as he had come, and, stubbing his toe painfully on his way out, left the cabin.

When Nico finally came back from Morpheus' grasp, he stretched and yawned before sitting up and opening his eyes. Shadow traveling certainly took a lot out of a person, and he'd had to try about five different places before he found what he needed.

He reached towards his bedside table, intending to turn on his lamp, when his hand brushed up against something that hadn't been there when he fell asleep.

Confused, he turned on the light, before picking up the object and examining it carefully. The object was wrapped in light blue wrapping paper, and had a silver bow tied to it, with a tag saying 'From Your Secret Admirer'.

Stunned, Nico carefully unwrapped the gift to find a huge coffee mug. The mug had Grumpy from Snow White dressed in his pajamas and looking-well, grumpy. Nico also saw that there was a small bag of (still warm) macadamia nut cookies that were…blue?

Nico grinned, happily opening the bag and taking a bite out of a cookie. So, he had a 'secret admirer', huh? Obviously they were someone who knew him pretty well, if they had given him a coffee mug with Grumpy on it (he was pretty much a zombie in the morning without caffeine), and only a few people knew that he loved macadamia nuts. But why were the cookies blue?

Wait a minute…Nico's eyebrows scrunched together as he remember going to Percy's house to talk to him before Kronos had attacked. Percy had offered him a slice of blue birthday cake, and explained its significance to Nico, who hadn't even known that Paul was Percy's _second _stepfather.

But why would Percy be his secret admirer? Percy was absolutely perfect, with his gorgeous sea green eyes and-

Nico stopped his thoughts from reaching into dangerous territory. 'Let's look at this objectively.' he thought to himself, hoping beyond hope.

Percy knew him better than anyone alive, even better than Nico's father, Hades. Percy had joked to him before about his 'caffeine addiction' (as if there was such a thing, Nico had protested), and obviously if Percy was the sender of this gift that explained why the cookies were blue, and even why they were macadamia nut (once Percy had stopped being annoyed with Nico about sort-of double-crossing him in the Underworld, they had played a modified version of _20 Questions_ to get to know each other better, and they ended up becoming best friends).

'Why would he give it to me as a secret admirer?' Nico wondered, staring at he rest of his cookies in contemplation. 'He's my best friend, and after Annabeth and he broke up last month (deciding they didn't work together as a couple)…' he again tried to stop his train of thought, but this time it didn't work. 'Can he see me as more than a friend?' Oh Gods, he hoped so.

'How can I find out for sure?' Nico wondered to himself, swallowing his excitement. 'If I'm wrong, I don't want to embarrass myself, so asking him or the girls is definitely out.'

Then Nico got an idea.

'I'll start sending 'secret admirer' gifts to him myself!' he thought, pleased. 'I'll give him clues just as vague as the ones he gave me, and see if he figures it out.'

With that thought, Nico jumped out of bed, quickly getting dressed in a pair of black skinny jeans, a blue t-shirt (as a sign to Percy that Nico knew it was him), and a black and blue pair of converse sneakers. Remembering that it was winter, he added his aviator jacket, grabbed his sword and new favorite coffee mug, and left his cabin.

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"Percy, look at Nico!" Rachel squealed to her best (guy) friend as she saw the Son of Hades sit at his table. Nico grabbed one of the magical glasses and suddenly the coffee of his choice appeared, which he immediately poured into a large coffee mug that he had brought with him.

Percy, for his part, turned towards the Hades table and smiled to himself. Nico liked the mug? He glanced back at his crush, seeing that he had the small bag of macadamia nut cookies beside him on the table and was munching on them happily as he took long drinks of his coffee.

'That boy and his caffeine.' Percy thought, amused as he shook his head. 'I wonder if he even has any blood left-it's probably all just coffee!' He gazed back at Nico, raising his eyebrows at what he was wearing. A blue t-shirt? Since when did Nico wear anything that wasn't black? Besides his aviator jacket, of course, which Percy saw that he was wearing.

At that moment, Nico looked up-straight into Percy's eyes. Percy, to cover up his embarrassment at being caught staring, smiled widely at him. Nico raised an eyebrow back at him and smirked slowly around his coffee mug-and maybe it was a bad idea to get that for him, since now Percy's view of Nico's lips was obscured…

'Get a grip, Percy.' he thought to himself, shaking his head at his own thoughts. 'Don't stare at him like that, it'll creep him out.'

'_Or not.'_ his subconscious whispered to him. _'He's staring back at you, after all.'_ Percy looked back at Nico and blushed slightly at the look Nico was still giving him. Now, he might not have been the smartest person at camp, but even he could take a hint. The raised eyebrow, the smirk, the blue t-shirt (that actually matched the wrapping paper on the gift he'd left in Nico's cabin that very morning)…Nico knew that Percy was his secret admirer.

And considering Nico didn't appear angry or disgusted, in fact maybe lustful (Nico's eyes had lidded slightly as he continued to gaze at Percy and drink his coffee), maybe his 'younger' 'cousin' didn't mind at all that Percy had a crush on him.

Finally, Nico finished his coffee and set it down on the table, slowly licking his lips. Percy struggled to remain calm as his eyes focused on those lips, so plump from drinking the hot liquid. Suddenly, Nico stood up, giving Percy one last glance before leaving, but not before smirking at him again. Percy narrowed his eyes, recognizing that the gauntlet had been thrown.

'Let the games begin.' the two of them thought.

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**I hope you guys like the first chapter! **

**Reviews are appreciated, but a comment just telling/asking me to update the story will be ignored (in the nicest way possible, since I do in fact have a life that doesn't involve writing fanfiction), but actually bothering with constructive criticism with those comments update requests I'm fine with.**

**Thank You!**


	2. And So It Begins

**Disclaimer: I don't own Nico or Percy (they belong to each other and Rick Riordan)**

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By the time Nico got back to camp, it was nightfall. Luckily, he had stopped at Olive Garden (one of his favorite restaurants) a few hours prior, so he wasn't really hungry. He had been trying to find a gift for Percy before he finally found something that would work.

Carefully, he wrapped it up in black wrapping paper (he did say he was going to make it just as obvious, didn't he?). He hadn't really ever had a reason to wrap up a gift, since he and Bianca never bothered to wrap their gifts for each other, and Nico had continued the habit with his friends, who hadn't said anything. But this was a special circumstance, and he wanted to get it just right…

Not that Percy didn't already know that Nico had figured it out. Regardless of the 'Kelp Head' and 'Seaweed Brain' comments and Percy's obliviousness, Nico was well aware that Percy wasn't an idiot. It had only taken him a few moments to understand the message Nico was sending to him, and the blush when Nico teased him…he was starting to think that his 'cousin' really _did _like him that way after all (cue inner squeals).

Not that Nico minded, of course. He had liked Percy since he met him, but then he let that stupid grudge dictate his actions, and then his desperation to find his mother's ghost…it wasn't until their game of _20 Questions _that Nico had realized just how much he liked Percy. And now he knew that the feelings were (he was about 70% sure) mutual.

He had thrown down the gauntlet, and since Percy had gone first, it was his turn, hence the small gift currently resting in his palm.

Silently, he shadow traveled into Percy's cabin, breathing in the scent of the sea deeply (as it smelled like Percy). He saw his crush already asleep, black hair ruffled and with his blankets half thrown off of him. He was shivering slightly, with so much of his skin exposed to the cold winter air.

Nico's heart clenched a bit, and he carefully rearranged the blankets so that they covered Percy completely. Maybe he'd have to get him a new fleece blanket one of these days…

Making sure that Percy was still asleep, Nico carefully set the present beside Percy on his pillow. He grinned to himself, imagining Percy's face when he opened his eyes after just waking up to see something right in front of his face. Huge crush on Percy or not, Nico was still a son of Hades, and he thought that it would be adorable-uh, cute, in a hilarious kind of way. He…he…

'Shut up, he groaned mentally as his brain played cricket noises; sometimes Nico wondered if he was insane. Then he realized that it didn't really matter, as he was sure that at least half of his friends were just as sane as he himself was.

Shaking his head to get his errant thoughts back on track, Nico glanced at Percy one last time, taking in how his skin glowed in the moonlight shining through the window (thank you, Lady Artemis, Nico thought).

Once again distracted, Nico finally managed to shake himself out of it, and quietly stepped back into the shadows, arriving back into his own cabin and lying down, thinking about the day's events for a while before falling into a deep sleep.

Percy opened his eyes slightly, feeling rather than hearing Nico leave. He did indeed startle a bit as he realized that Nico had left him a gift of his own, but quickly got over it and smiled. His heart fluttered at he remembered Nico covering him back up with his blankets so-dare he think it, lovingly. Not that Percy's shivers had been faked, even if he wasn't really asleep. No, right before Nico had arrived he was accidentally kicked them partly off of himself, and didn't have time to cover himself back up with them since Nico arrived not two seconds later.

After leaving the gift on his pillow (which explained what Nico was doing in his cabin in the first place), he realized that Nico had been standing there watching him (he started to blush) for a while before Percy had felt him leave. What was so interesting about Percy that Nico would stare at him for so long? He had been pretending to be asleep, so surely there wasn't anything to hold Nico's attention?

Percy shook his head, realizing that he could just see for himself when he went to give Nico his second gift that night. He turned back towards the gift in his palm (wrapped up in black, of course). The wrapping was a bit sloppy, but Percy had realized a while ago that even during birthdays and holidays Nico never wrapped the presents he had gotten for his friends. He felt warm, realizing that he was apparently an exception.

He carefully unwrapped it, sentimental about Nico's (probably first) gift-wrapping. Yes, he was aware that he was being overly-emotional, but he couldn't help it. Finally, he set the wrapping paper aside, and saw what the object was.

A blue and silver anklet sat in his palm, made with thin but soft cords interwoven together. Percy marveled at its beauty-though it was simple, it was gorgeous. There was even a small sea shell pendent on one of the chords, and Percy recognized it as a sand dollar (similar to the one Percy had received from his father, Poseidon, as a birthday present a few years earlier).

Percy immediately stripped his feet of his socks and put the anklet on his right ankle. It fit perfectly, and Percy loved it!

Of course, then he realized that, since it was currently winter, no one (even Nico) would be able to see it if he wore it one his ankle. So, he sighed and removed it, placing it on his wrist instead. He would move it back when the weather started warming up.

Happily thinking about everything that had happened, Percy lay back down, putting his socks back on. Eventually, he fell asleep with a smile on his face, and for once he didn't have any flashbacks or visions (which he had been plagued with since the war ended).

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**Hi guys! Thanks to all who reviewed, I'm on vacation at the moment but I thought I'd update anyway. To anyone who has any ideas on gifts for Nico and Percy to exchange I'm all years, but I won't be able to put every suggestion, even if personally I think they're really good. **

**Also, to those who read my previous stories, I'm so sorry but I got hacked and all of those stories were deleted permanently. I'm not really into Glee anymore but if I have the time I'll try to re-create them, but no promises. As to Bring On the Storm from my first account, I might make it a summer project to try and finish that as well, but again, no promises. I have a huge number of things to do this summer and I just don't have the time and energy to do it all. But I won't be updating until probably after the 16th, which is when I get back home. **


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